> Carroll said, “Carolina went nuts early. They just lost their minds at one point. One team had been there before.”

> Carroll said, “We didn’t throw the ball as well as we’d like to. There’s reasons why. We did balance out our attack.”

> Asked what stands out to him from the last game against the 49ers, Carroll says, “We should have won!”

> Asked how much the defense’s success influences the offensive playcalling, Carroll said, “We’re trying to play really, rally good ball. And, that means we take care of the football and don’t give it up. You don’t give up field position.”

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Gregg Bell joined The News Tribune in July 2014. Bell had been the director of writing for the University of Washington's athletic department for four years. He was the senior national sports writer in Seattle for The Associated Press from 2005-10, covering the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl season and beyond. He's also been The Sacramento Bee's beat writer on the Oakland Athletics and Raiders. The native of Steubenville, Ohio, is a 1993 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and a 2000 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.

“Donte Whitner, 49er safety, on the Niners strategy: “We have to take him [Marshawn Lynch] away and make the quarterback beat us.””

He said something similar before week 2, and they couldn’t do it. In fact, they haven’t done it the last three times up here. That said, RW and the receivers need to come to play. RW needs to take off with the ball more IMO.

Absolutely. Any defensive game planning has to start with taking Lynch away; he’s Seattle’s best offensive player. Now, if Seattle’s o line can provide relatively clean pockets for Wilson, it becomes a different story. Or if Wilson is able to roll out, that would be a positive. But if SF is effective at stopping Lynch and they get in Wilson’s face, this season will come to an end Sunday afternoon, I’m afraid.

Totally what we’ve all been saying about the passing game – the Saints needed the Hawks to do them some favors to get back in the game. Russell did not oblige.

Once concern was the 3 or 4 slants that were really off. Those should be high%/low-risk throws and they didn’t come together. Saints had the same problem with screens – they complete 1 or 2 of those Sproles screens and we might be talking about a different outcome.

Hopefully Golden and Russell and throwing slants for 6 hours today.

Whitner’s a cave man – we could draw up the play we’re about to run right beforehand and he’d still be clueless. All that dude knows is head-hunting and how to pay fines.

LOL Raymaines. I’m not sure why people aren’t comprehending that either.. Weather WAS a factor. It’s not like RW is just chucking up wobbly ducks. That deep ball that Tate dropped.. That was as pretty a throw as you’ll ever see. Perfect amount of air under it.. Dropped it righ in Tate’s chest.

Wasn’t much of a pass rush against Carolina. I think that was deliberate to keep Cam from having a running lane. I would suspect a very similar game plan from them. Our running game will be much tougher for them than what they saw against the Panthers. In addition, our defense at this point of the season, is more than anything they’ve ever had to deal with. I’m not even worried about it. It’s going to be a very enjoyable beat down.

I think if the WX had been just average, Seattle would have had at least two picks, two more pass completions, and an on-side kick recovery against the Saints. The score wouldn’t have been close and we wouldn’t be worried about the offence or the 49’ers right now.

That’s not true. The score wouldn’t have been close, but a good number of us would still be wringing our hands in despair.

I don’t think better weather would have helped the Saints at all.

The games get harder as the chaff gets blown away but in the last two years we have just barely lost two games in SF (9 points total) and have kicked some serious Niner butt here in the CLink (aggregate 71-16). Past performance is no guarantee of future gains of course, but I like the odds.

RW has got to fix his pocket mechanics and quickly. For about 4 weeks now he’s been “arming” a lot of his throws from the pocket. His footwork has been off. It’s the first mental issue I’ve seen in him since week one in AZ last year where he looked rattled…much like you’d expect a rookie in their first start. He’s fine on the run left and right, but in the pocket he’s lost his mechanics a bit.

Best way to help him over this hurdle is to do two things. One, install some moving pockets so he is moving while reading the defense and his progressions. (This is very different from improv. on the run). And two put him in a hurry up offense in practice and force the tempo to be way faster than what he wants.

Nothing like a little urgency to get a QB through a mental block. But we can’t afford to wait until the 4th Qtr on Sunday. Even the 2nd Qtr could be “too late”. So I am hoping they are putting massive practice emphasis on the 2 minute drill this week. And hopfully they’ll dial up some moving pockets, rollouts, and such. Then get him moving early in the game…l9ike first sequence early. Give the 49ers something new to think about and let RW stop thinking and just play.

We’re going to need him at his best because he may just end up needing to take over the game like he did against the Texans.

Right Georgia. He just cant hit 2 out of 5 open guys on 5-yard slant routes to save his life. And he goes for a low percentage 20 yard pass on third and three when there’s acres of green in front of him because he FORGOT it was third down…

Look, the guy has talent, moxie, and the it factor like no one else, and Im stoked he’s our qb, but the guy isnt fine, and hasnt been for five weeks. He’s struggling against everyone and everything. He’s even struggling to do the little things right, like get the play off in time (not this week).

RW will be fine–at some point–but he better get it figured out this week, or it really wont matter this year at all. Thats why I feel a sense of urgency after watching his play the past month and a half. I wish I had your blind faith that he will return to form any day now…

I never said its hopeless. Im not saying Wilson sucks, or has lost it, or wont get it back. Im sure he will get back on track. Im just worried it wont be in time to whup the Niners–partly because he’s been playing less than stellar football for the last quarter of a season, and partly because I cant stand the idea of losing at home to the Niners this year of all years.

And weather was not a major factor in most of those games. No free passes for the qb, especially not after so many give him credit for all our wins, as if he did it by himself. We won a lot of games in spite of him last year, more than we won because of him, in fact.

Im sure the weather and the no-turnover conservatism of Carrol affected his play this week–but what about the other four games? I guess we just have to hope, and keep the faith. If anyone can fix it, its Russell the Workaholic.

Raymaines – The NFL Gamebook said that in those 20 mph (+/-) gusts and variable rain last Saturday, Brees and his receivers made SIXTEEN (16) first downs by passing while RW and his receivers made only 5. SEA’s pass offense made those five passing 1st downs against a 13th ranked pass rush and 8th ranked pass coverage (NO). NO’s offense played 77 total snaps and scored 15 points, SEA’s played 60 and scored 23. NO had one 1st,2nd,3rd,punt; SEA had three, all in the 2nd half.

Last Sunday, in the sun and 8 mph winds, SF made 11 passing first downs against the 12th ranked pass rush and 6th ranked pass coverage team (CAR). In their game, CAR’s offense played 57 total snaps and scored 10 points, SF’s offense played 66 snaps and made 23 points. CAR had one 1st,2nd,3rd,punt; SF also had one. SF also scored 23 points in 64 snaps against GB while holding them to 20 points in 64 snaps.

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